


No More Prisons

by roguefaerie (samidha)



Category: Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types, Black Sails, Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Historical RPF, La Belle et la Bête | Beauty and the Beast (Fairy Tale), Real Person Fiction
Genre: Ableism, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Disabled Character, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fairytale is Based on a Real Person, Families of Choice, He Deserves to be Remembered, M/M, Technically RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 10:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13786032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: A Beauty and the Beast fusion, as requested by the prompt, but the author can't write this "fairy tale" without paying homage to the real story that inspired it. Although the fandom listed is the first fictionalization, Beauty and the Beast was based on two real people, one of whom was a disabled man. Although I had mixed feelings in deciding to do this, this retelling at least acknowledges him in some way. This is a fusion which tells some version of the events of his life.Basically: Not Movieverse.





	No More Prisons

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [iwtv](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwtv/pseuds/iwtv) in the [MeditationsII](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/MeditationsII) collection. 



The man had come from distant lands, brought by boat by those who were selling him to the court. He would be a jester, it would seem, or some type of entertainment--truly whatever would be done with someone (a freak) such as he was. His own family gave him for coin, in shame, and he was settled into the French court, and then the English, going almost full circle from where he had come in the first place.

In his travels, he was restless, and always at the mercy of others. He would go where he was brought, and he was brought in order to entertain for some kind of compensation to the courts he worked under.

Still, there was one, a beautiful person, who would steal into his chamber, bringing him food, or sending it with someone. He had learned to be able to read the notes that came with these small tokens of appreciation, and he loved this person who paid him small kindnesses.

It came to be known that it was a man named Thomas, who signed his notes with a scripted T. They were not always in his handwriting, and so they were sometimes written as if by two people. Then it must have been that the scribe was aware of his existence.

He received these notes signed “- T” for many moons, and in between these sightings of the written evidence of his benefactor, he performed. He was locked high in an attic room, but the person who sent the bits of bread and cheese and other food knew where he was and how to send the perfect things, just what was needed then and there. 

The small gifts came like clockwork, although not every day, but always close enough together that they could be expected.

And then one day Thomas came to him and said that he had seen him, and that it was only right that the Beast see him as well. That they would be friends if the Beast wished this, and that although they may not be able to bear children, Thomas had conceived plenty who could be theirs with his wife who had now died in childbirth. If the Beast would like to come with Thomas, he could be known by a name of his own choosing that was not Beast. Thomas would stand by his side and defend his honor, for he was sure that the Beast had honor to protect, and he was ready. And if the Beast were angry at his captors, Thomas would honor this as well, to the best of his ability. 

Thomas had heard tell of the rumors of the Beast in the court, but he had seen nothing but humanity in the captive entertainer’s eyes on his many visits there. And it would seem that Thomas had won favor enough to take the Beast from his confines.

“Would you have me change?” asked the Beast.

“All that you are is already here,” Thomas said. “And rather it is your choice if you would go with me. I know my tokens have been small--”

“Your small kindnesses are more than have been given to me by my own blood.”

“This is what I saw in your eyes.”

“I will follow you.”

“Then come with me.”

And Thomas led him from the castle, and when he had recuperated in Thomas’ care, in a place where he had access to as many books and as much food as he could ever want, the Beast said that he chose the name of James, and he was James henceforth.

Thomas scattered notes about the home they shared, and he signed each and every one just as he had at first, when nothing about their fates was certain. And though some of his children were elder and sneered, some were younger and learned to run to James for comfort and love that flowed both ways.

Thomas had a smith create two rings, and he gave one to James, that fit snugly over his hair. For James was not transformed as in a fairytale, but was instead accepted as fully human as he was. And in this way, a family was made that tall tales would speak of throughout time. 

News of them would even travel home to the ones who had given him away and given him up for dead, so much was their shame. 

And if he reached a point of wishing to return to court, it was on his own terms, with his Thomas and their family in tow. The truth was, though, that he didn’t much want to return to the place where he had been kept, and Thomas and the children solemnly honored this wish as well. And he knew he had found home, and he knew that he now belonged in a family. No longer was he bound to travel the sea and cater to whims of royalty as entertainment alone. He was his own man, in his own place in the world. 

The children had children, and the family grew, and it was known that no ridicule against James would be tolerated. And slowly, too, James found his confidence, and lived a life of dignity. While he had been saved, it had been his choice as well, and slowly but surely he knew himself, he knew those around him, and though the tales ebbed and flowed around him he knew that he had made the best life for himself that he could with the cards he was dealt. The gossip mattered less, and the knowledge that he would become something of a legend did not have to penetrate his world, exactly, although he knew himself to be unlike anyone else. That was something he had come to terms with long ago, even before Thomas had taken him from his royal prison.

His family enfolded him and protected him, and he offered them all that he had to give them.

He was loved, and in the end, that was more than enough.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [We Have Always Been Here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17189954) by [roguefaerie (samidha)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie)




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